The District: Road trip

From a Virginia town hall to the “friendly” confines of Facebook, President Obama is in sell mode as he tries to persuade the American public that his plan to cut the deficit will stave off a fiscal crisis. But the town hall tour got off to a bumpy start, as Standard & Poor’s issued a negative outlook on U.S. debt for the first time in history, sending stock markets into a tailspin - and the White House and members of Congress scrambling to make sense of the unprecedented move.